- UCAS course code
- T301
- UCAS institution code
- M20
BA East Asian Studies with International Study / Course details
Year of entry: 2024
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Course unit details:
History and Civilisation of Japan
Unit code | JAPA10111 |
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Credit rating | 20 |
Unit level | Level 1 |
Teaching period(s) | Semester 1 |
Available as a free choice unit? | Yes |
Overview
This course introduces Japanese Studies majors to the history of Japan. You will acquire knowledge and understanding of Japanese history from prehistoric times to the end of World War Two. You will engage in more in-depth study of early modern and modern Japan, gaining a more detailed and analytical understanding of the foundations and process of Japan’s modernization and empire-building. The course deals with political, social, and cultural history, including the introduction of key literary texts in their historical context. The information you will learn will provide a contextual background for the understanding of Japan in historical and contemporary contexts. There is no linguistic requirement and all the materials are accessible in English.
Pre/co-requisites
Available on: Japanese Studies (Single Honours) and Joint Honours programmes including Japanese.
Aims
- To provide students with an understanding of Japan’s historical development from prehistoric times to the twentieth century;
- To enable students to gain an analytic understanding of major features of Japan’s political, social, and cultural history;
- To develop students’ abilities to engage critically with historical analysis and formulate cogent, well-structured arguments in answer to historical questions.
Learning outcomes
Syllabus
The course will cover the following major periods of Japanese history:
Prehistoric and ancient Japan (Jomon to Nara periods)
Medieval Japan (Heian to Muromachi periods)
Early Modern Japan (Azuchi-Momoyama and Tokugawa periods)
Modern Japan (Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods)
Modern Japan will be dealt with in more depth than other sections.
Teaching and learning methods
Lecture classes will set out the key issues and provide fundamental information, while indicating means of understanding and interpreting the subjects treated. Seminars will be used to consider key issues and reading in greater depth. Students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings.
The course unit will provide information and guidance to at least Blackboard minimum requirements. PowerPoint slides used in lectures and as many readings for seminars and essays as copyright law allows will be made available via Blackboard.
Knowledge and understanding
- Understand the outlines of Japan’s historical development;
- Know and understand the major features of early modern and modern Japan’s political, social, and cultural history.
Intellectual skills
- Engage in informed critical analysis of the early modern and modern history of Japan;
- Read and think critically;
- Write analytically.
Practical skills
- Use library, electronic, and online resources;
- Organise notes derived from lectures, seminars, and reading.
Transferable skills and personal qualities
- Hone oral and written skills of reasoned thinking, discussion and argument.
Employability skills
- Other
- The course will develop a range of abilities that are essential for much higher-level employment. These include gathering, critically selecting, and organizing information and ideas; analytical, critical thinking; interpreting and assessing sources; articulating coherent, logical and convincing arguments and supporting them by relevant evidence; articulate participation in oral discussion; working independently and to deadlines.
Assessment methods
Assessment task | Formative or Summative | Weighting within unit (%) |
Bibliography and writing exercise | Formative | n/a |
Essay | Summative | 67% |
Exam | Summative | 33% |
Resit Assessment:
Essay
Feedback methods
Feedback method | Formative or Summative |
Peer review and teacher’s comments in class on bibliography and writing exercise. | Formative |
Written comments on coursework essay. Students are also welcome to come to see the teacher to discuss their essay assignments and comments on them, once the essay has been returned to them, on the understanding that this de-anonymises the marking. | Formative and summative |
Written comments on final examination. All feedback will be returned within the time limits specified in the relevant Faculty and SALC feedback policies. | Summative |
Recommended reading
Friday, Karl. (Ed.) (2012) Japan Emerging: Premodern History to 1850. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Totman, Conrad (2005). A History of Japan, Second Edition (Blackwell).
Kinmonth, Earl H. (1981). The Self-Made Man in Meiji Japanese Thought: From Samurai to Salary Man. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Partner, Simon (2004). Toshie: A Story of Village Life in Twentieth-Century Japan. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Mason, Michele, and Helen J.S. Lee (2012) Reading Colonial Japan: Text, context, and critique. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Young, Louise (1998). Japan’s Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
Katō, Shūichi. (1997). A history of Japanese literature : From the Man'yōshū to modern times / Shuichi Kato ; translated & edited by Don Sanderson. (New ed.). Richmond: Japan Library.
Study hours
Scheduled activity hours | |
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Lectures | 22 |
Seminars | 11 |
Independent study hours | |
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Independent study | 167 |
Teaching staff
Staff member | Role |
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Bill Mihalopoulos | Unit coordinator |